DURANGO, Colo.—People in wheelchairs protested a lack of access to buildings in Durango. And to prove their point, they rolled up and down stairs, banged into doors and waited for emergency responders to pull them out of tight spaces.
About 20 people toured Main Avenue’s businesses on Tuesday, telling business owners their civil rights are being violated.
To use the downstairs bathroom at Olde Tymer’s Cafe, Ian Engle, who is wheelchair-bound, had to hoist himself backward down the narrow, steep staircase, risking injury. On-looking kitchen staff gasped as the wheels of Engle’s chair thumped against every step.
Once downstairs, Engle had to wait 10 minutes while the restaurant staff called 911, hoping to enlist the fire department’s help to extract him from the bottom level. Finally, a group of off-duty La Plata County sheriff’s deputies intervened and carried Engle up a concrete stairway that led to the patio, the only staircase wide enough.
“If you don’t have to deal with it, it’s just out of sight, out of mind, you know?” said Jason Ragsdale, the protest’s organizer.
Ragsdale said the protesters hoped to show business owners that current accommodations for the disabled often are inadequate and to arrange follow-up meetings to discuss useful and cheap architectural modifications.
Some of the protesters whipped out a portable, foldable metal ramp whenever confronted by businesses with inaccessible doorways.
When the protesters tried to enter Poppy’s sandwich shop, which required the ramp, owner Matt Scott said people with disabilities usually enter on a ramp in the back that leads into the kitchen.
Without missing a beat, Engle whipped out a hand-made sign that read: “Cripples use the back door.”
“I’ve been through so many dirty alleys. What if I want to go on a date?” Engle asked.
Engle and Poppy’s owner agreed to meet later to discuss how Poppy’s might become more accessible.
Ellinda McKinney, an advocate for independent living, said the protest was sparked by recent reports of tourists with disabilities being stranded at Durango-La Plata County Airport without suitable transportation and being charged more by taxi companies to get into Durango.
Some businesses took the protesters’ criticisms in stride.
At Derailed Pour House, management readily accepted that the staircase to the bathroom, though short, was far too steep for a ramp, and protesters praised the restaurant staffers for being supportive.
Maria’s Bookshop got a thank-you card from the protesters.
“They even have a ramp to go over the hump in the door!” McKinney said.
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Information from: Durango Herald,
